Published: Tuesday, June 24, 2014 at 5:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Tuesday, June 24, 2014 at 5:57 a.m.

The Hilton Daytona Beach Oceanfront Resort in August will begin its first major renovation in nearly a decade, an executive with the hotel’s management company announced Monday.

News-Journal/NIGEL COOK

The Hilton Daytona Beach Oceanfront Resort in August will begin a $20 million-to-$30 million renovation of its 744 guest rooms and facilities, said Jason Reader, vice president of operations for Pyramid Hotel Group, the Boston-based company that manages the hotel.

The $8 million initial phase of the three-phase project should be finished in time for Biketoberfest in mid-October, said Reader. Phase two will focus on the hotel’s 60,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor meeting space and phase three will cover all public areas not touched during the first two phases, he said, adding that the entire renovation should be done within two years.

The plans are the latest in a series of new-hotel construction and renovation project announcements, including news Monday that an upscale Marriott Autograph Collection hotel will open near Daytona International Speedway in 2016.

The first phase calls for the Hilton to outfit its guest rooms with new bedding, paint, carpeting, window treatment and refinished furniture. Some rooms will get new granite-topped armoires, Reader said.

The hotel’s hallways and most of its seven restaurants will be re-carpeted, and the lobby will be redecorated with new furniture and fixtures, Reader added.

In addition to renovating the hotel’s interior, the Hilton also will spend about $400,000 cleaning and restoring the hotel’s facade. That project is separate from the other renovations and should be completed by December, Reader said.

The Hilton was built with the support of taxpayer money from the city in the late 1980s and opened in 1989 as a Marriott. In the years since, the hotel has faced foreclosure and changed owners and brands several times.

LNR Property took the hotel last year as its special servicer in a deed in lieu of foreclosure.

The planned renovations are the largest the hotel has undergone since it switched from an Adam’s Mark hotel to a Hilton in 2005, Reader said.

Typically, hotels set aside between 3 percent and 5 percent of their revenue for property improvements and conduct a major renovation every six years or so.

The 2007-2009 Great Recession hit the local tourism industry hard and was followed by several soft years for area hotels, said Bob Davis, president and CEO of the Hotel & Lodging Association of Volusia County. During that time, many hotels in Volusia County put off major renovation work, he said.

“Times were bad, and the money wasn’t flowing,” Davis said. “(The Hilton) came through a pretty difficult time, and it’s wonderful to see the (new) investment.”

The Ocean Center, the county-run convention center across the street from the Hilton, should benefit from renovation work the Hilton does, as meetings and convention planners pay close attention to the quality of hotel rooms within walking distance of convention centers they’re considering, said Don Poor, the Ocean Center’s director.

Poor said the Hilton’s announcement and that of other hotel renovation and construction projects throughout the area will make Daytona Beach a more attractive place for corporate and other higher-income travelers to hold conventions.

“A lot of these properties in town have become dated, so it’s encouraging to see the Hilton putting major dollars in its property,” Poor said. “The renovations will take us through a gentrification process we need to be successful in the future.”

The Ocean Center completed its own renovations — an $82 million expansion — in 2009.

Paul Politis, owner of the Gator Beach & Sport gift shop across Atlantic Avenue just north of the Hilton, said he welcomed news of the Hilton’s planned renovation and said the hotel was beginning to look out of place compared to the Ocean Center and renovated Daytona Beach Pier, which in 2012 became home to a large, new Joe’s Crab Shack restaurant.

“It’s long overdue,” Politis said of the hotel’s planned makeover. “The Hilton has been lagging in appearance.”

Other companies in the area have recently announced plans to renovate or build new hotels in Daytona Beach. Earlier this month, the owners of the Desert Inn — an oceanfront hotel once ranked one of the dirtiest in the county by travel website TripAdvisor — told The News-Journal it intends to gut the hotel and reopen it as a higher-end Westin resort by early next summer.

And on Monday, International Speedway Corp., the Speedway’s parent company, announced that an upscale Marriott Autograph Collection hotel and a second as yet unnamed boutique hotel will be part of One Daytona, a massive $800 million entertainment/retail/residential complex ISC is developing with Atlanta-based firm Jacoby Development.

Additionally, two large hotel-and-condominium projects — a Hard Rock Hotel and Cafe and an unbranded luxury convention hotel at the end of Oakridge Boulevard — are expected to open on the Daytona Beach oceanfront in 2016.

The new hotels will join a Residence Inn by Marriott set to open later this year in Daytona Beach Shores and a Hilton Garden Inn slated to open its doors in January on the Daytona Beach oceanfront.

In Daytona Beach Shores, the Shores Resort & Spa, the only four-diamond hotel in the Daytona Beach area, is undergoing a $3 million renovation.

“Daytona Beach is off and flying,” Davis said. “I think I died and went to heaven.”

Still, Hilton management has been planning for the upgrade for a while — well before many of the other hotel construction and renovation projects in the area were announced, Reader said.

“We recognized it was time to re-invest in the hotel,” he said. “I will tell you that when (the Westin and other new hotels) were announced, it created a sense of urgency to get it done, but this renovation would be done either way.”

Nancy Keefer, president and CEO of the Daytona Regional Chamber of Commerce, said new hotel construction and renovations such as the ones announced by the Hilton will encourage other hoteliers in the area to sink money into their own properties.

“Everybody is going to have to up their game, and that’s different from the way it’s been in the Daytona Beach area for a number of years,” said Keefer, a former hotel manager.

Pyramid is seeking general contractors for the first phase of renovations. Because of the project’s size and compressed work schedule, the hotel could hire up to two general contractors to handle the renovation, Reader said.

Hotel management decided to renovate in August and September because those months usually coincide with a lull in travel to Daytona Beach, which will give the hotel enough breathing room to close off about 100 guest rooms at a time for renovation, Reader said.

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